Back to Toronto's 'Officer Bubbles' gains web notoriety
Toronto's 'Officer Bubbles' gains web notoriety
July 16, 2010
Wendy Gillis
Toronto police Const. Adam Josephs is now known as "Officer Bubble" after threatening to arrest a bubble-blowing protester during the G20 summit on June 27, 2010.
STEVE RUSSELL/TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTOHe's now known as “Officer Bubbles.”
Const. Adam Josephs has gained considerable notoriety after being caught on tape threatening to arrest a G20 protester for blowing bubbles.
In a viral Internet video, the 52 Division officer tells protester Courtney Winkels she will be arrested for assault because she is blowing bubbles in front of officers.
The video — shown on the website therealnews.com and this week on American network Fox News — shows Winkels, orange bubble wand in hand, interacting with Josephs and a female officer.
“You touch me with that bubble you're going into custody,” he tells her in a video entitled “Booked for Bubbles” that was shot June 27 near Queen St. W. and Dufferin St.
When Winkels says she doesn't feel respected by Josephs, he replies: “That's terrible. My heart bleeds.”
Winkels says she was talking with the female officer when Josephs walked over from about seven metres away — “totally out of range of the bubbles” — to stand in front of her and threaten arrest.
“I was both shocked and confused, but I complied and put the bubbles away,” Winkels said in an email. She was arrested later for an incident unrelated to the bubbles, and has been charged with conspiracy to commit an indictable offence.
“Officer Bubbles” was also the subject of a handful of blogs and Facebook groups reporting that his Facebook profile made a derogatory statement about the public he serves as a Toronto police officer.
As of Friday morning, Josephs' Facebook profile had been made private.
Insp. Anil Anand with the Toronto police public information unit said Friday he had heard rumours about offensive comments in the officer's personal profile, but said he is not aware of a formal complaint being filed.
“If someone was offended by that, they are more than welcome to file a complaint and we can have a look at it within the context of somebody filing an actual complaint,” he said.
When contacted, Josephs hung up on a Star reporter.
The G20 bubbles incident has also spurred a YouTube cartoon, called “Officer Bubbles.”
In it, a beefed-up police officer in sunglasses threatens to arrest a woman for dancing in the streets. The video ends with a joke that the next episode will feature Officer Bubbles shooting a kitten stuck in a tree.
Meanwhile, it's BYOB at Queen's Park Saturday — that is, bring your own bubbles.
A few hundred protesters are expected to blow bubbles en masse at noon to show support for a public inquiry into police actions during the G20.
Winkels hopes to attend.
“We wanted to have an event that would be fun and creative,” says Valentyna Onisko, a 21-year-old student and organizer of the event, which precedes a civil liberties rally.
Although she said a formal invitation to blow bubbles has not been extended to Josephs, he is more than welcome to attend, bubble wand in hand.